Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw, right, has been groomed by Phil Jackson to be a viable successor as Lakers head coach for the 2011-12 season. DAVID ZALUBOWSKI, AP

A year from now, Brian Shaw probably won't get to vacation in Cabo in relative anonymity anymore.

Shaw figures to be the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, perhaps the three-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.

So well aware of that is he that Shaw is lying low as best as he can these days, determined not to bring extra attention to himself as one of the biggest winners of this tumultuous NBA offseason.

Shaw could've become head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers but had the restraint to insist on a timetable to ensure the job would not be a glorified janitorial position: cleaning up the mess LeBron James left.

Given that Shaw is connected to – and mostly beloved by – nearly every person in the NBA, past and present, Shaw had more than an inkling James wouldn't be in Cleveland for him to teach. So Shaw passed on what indeed wound up being the worst job in the NBA: We're talking about disheartened fan base, wacko owner, bad city, bad arena and the horrible double negative of a bad team with old players.

Middling coaching jobs come along pretty often, and Shaw has interviewed for them often. Kurt Rambis wound up taking one of them in Minnesota. Byron Scott took this one in Cleveland.

Shaw, 44, has held off. It hasn't always been easy, especially for a guy who prides himself on living life to the fullest – something he has done even more so since the 1993 death of his mother, father and sister in a car accident. The 11-month-old daughter of Shaw's sister survived the crash, and he fought to become legal guardian of Brianna, his niece and namesake.

Shaw's patience with his job search has positioned him perfectly, even though Jerry and Jim Buss aren't tipping their hand. Jackson eventually did decide in early July to coach another season but immediately declared it his "last stand."

So with Mitch Kupchak already dropping hints about maintaining the triangle offense without Jackson and promoting Chuck Person to full-time assistant coach so the Lakers' staff might return nearly intact for 2011-12 ... the shadows in which Shaw is so good at lurking are growing short.

He has made a life out of being good but not great, omnipresent but not omnipotent, a man of the people yet governor of none.

So no one can know for sure how he'll be as a head coach.

But it's time for everyone to start thinking about it.

He can't possibly be Jackson, but there is a calm that radiates from Shaw, too. It's what drew Shaquille O'Neal to him – and led O'Neal to endorse the out-of-work Shaw, O'Neal's former Orlando teammate, to the Lakers' brass as a fill-in guard after Kobe Bryant broke his hand in the first exhibition game of Jackson's first Lakers season. Three Lakers championships later, Shaw's retirement party would take place at O'Neal's Beverly Hills mansion.

Despite being a Shaq guy, Shaw still managed to be the teammate Kobe called to lean on when he was at his saddest point about the disconnect between Bryant and his parents. Bryant was 10 years old when he first met up with Shaw, an Italian League teammate of Bryant's father. One passage of Jackson's book "The Last Season" talks about his annoyance at Bryant picking up his cell in the locker room just before the last-gasp 2004 NBA Finals Game 5 in Detroit – later finding out it was Shaw whose call Bryant insisted on taking.

At one point late last season, Bryant speculated about Jackson's health requiring him to miss some games and said it'd be seamless if "Brian stepped in." Bryant's mention of Shaw as the proper fill-in was completely unsolicited.

Shaw isn't about to dwell on the what-if scenarios or in any way usher Jackson off permanently to a giant ergonomically correct lakefront chair in Montana. But Shaw had better prepare to be the most-watched assistant coach in the league this season.

What observers will see are irrepressible boyish grins blended with far more direct fire than Jackson opts to flash. Shaw is unafraid to walk down the bench and speak directly or even contentiously with a player not being true to the game and the team – as Sasha Vujacic found out last season in Oklahoma City but other unfocused Lakers such as Brian Cook and Kwame Brown – and even Bryant at times – came to know very well in past seasons.

It was actually Jackson who revealed Shaw's most over-the-top coaching move – coming before Game 5 of the 2009 NBA Finals – and it did help put the Lakers over the top.

In the team's pregame meeting in Orlando, Shaw dramatically revealed a blank scouting board with none of the Orlando's plays on it – driving home the point that the prep work was completely done ... and all that remained was a final execution to be performed by these men worthy of becoming champions.

The Lakers finished off Orlando that night. They beat Boston last season. And if it's Miami next time, Shaw could happily say he knocked off the three teams he represented most in his playing career before finding his way to the Lakers.

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